Self-generated content with enhanced location information

ABSTRACT

A system and device for acquiring self-generated content and determining additional data related to the self-generated content. The content acquiring device ( 120 ) may have a content input, a data input ( 110 ), and a processor ( 122 ). The data input ( 110 ) acquires content, a time of acquiring the content and/or a location of acquiring the content. The data input ( 110 ) receives at least one of timeframe data and reference location data. The processor ( 122 ) is operatively coupled to the content input and the data input ( 110 ) and is utilized to determine additional data from a relation between at least one of the time of acquiring the content and the location of acquiring the content, and at least one of the timeframe data and the reference location data.

The present invention generally relates to a method and system forproviding additional information for self-generated content, such asaudio and visual content, and particularly relates to a method andsystem for providing the self-generated content with additional datasuch as enhanced location information.

There are systems that store self-generated content, such asself-generated image content from a camera, with additional dataregarding a time and location of when and where the image content wasacquired. For example, cameras, such as camcorders and digital cameras,are known that maintain a current time indication. These cameras havethe ability to store the time indication, at the time of imageacquisition, together with the digital image data. Other cameras areknown that utilize a global positioning system (GPS) locationindication, typically simple GPS coordinates, for purposes of storingthe GPS coordinates that indicate a location of image acquisitiontogether with the image data.

However, problems exist in that the GPS coordinates in many cases yieldsinsufficient information to be useful or even meaningful to a user.Namely, the GPS coordinates must first be resolved into coordinatescarrying more meaning, like a town or region where the image wasacquired. This additional information in many instances may still notprove to be sufficiently informative since in many instances, where apicture was acquired may later carry little meaning to the user. Forexample, during vacations many pictures are acquired on day trips. Atypical day trip may consist of starting at a town A and traveling to atown B, then to a town C, and thereafter, at the end of the day,traveling to a town D. The information that an image was acquired at alocation X carries far less meaning then, for example, the informationthat the image was acquired somewhere on the road from town B to town C.In addition, in prior systems, location information stored with theimage data is determined and stored solely at the time of imageacquisition. Oftentimes, it may not be till sometime after an image isacquired that relevant location information is determined.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to overcome theabove disadvantages and other disadvantages of the prior art.

The invention provides a system, such as a camera system, for acquiringself-generated content and determining additional data related to theself-generated content. In accordance with one embodiment, the contentacquiring device may have a content input, a data input, and aprocessor. The data input may be utilized for acquiring content, as wellas for acquiring a time of acquiring the content and/or a location ofacquiring the content. The data input receives at least one of timeframedata and reference location data. The processor is operatively coupledto the content input and the data input and is utilized to determineadditional data from a relation between at least one of the time ofacquiring the content and the location of acquiring the content, and atleast one of the timeframe data and the reference location data.

The content acquiring device may be an imaging camera such as aphotographic camera, a motion picture camera, or a camcorder. Thecontent acquiring device may include a global position system receiver(GPS) coupled to the processor for providing the processor with thelocation of acquiring the content. The content acquiring device may useboth the timeframe data and the reference location data for determiningthe additional data. The timeframe data may be a start and an end of atime interval. The reference location data may be a location of thecontent acquiring device at the start and the end of the time interval.

The content acquiring device may also include a memory for storing theacquired content and the determined additional data. Further, the datainput of the content acquiring device may be a microphone for receivingaudio input that is converted by the processor to the timeframe dataand/or the reference location data. The data input of the contentacquiring device may also be connectable to an external network, such asthe World Wide Web (WWW), or an external data source, such as a computeror an external storage device.

The following are descriptions of embodiments of the present inventionthat when taken in conjunction with the following drawings willdemonstrate the above noted features and advantages, as well as furtherones. It should be expressly understood that the drawings anddescription are included for illustrative purposes and do not representthe scope of a present invention. The invention is best understood inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative embodiment of a system in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a flow diagram illustrating operation of a system inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 shows a portion 300 of the memory 126, for storing data relatedto an image that is acquired in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative system 100 in accordance with an embodimentof the present invention including a content acquisition device,hereinafter generally referred to as a camera 120, having a contentacquisition device, such as an imaging system (not shown). The contentacquisition device is operatively coupled to a processor 122. Theoperation of a content acquisition device for acquiring content, such asan imaging system of a digital camera for acquiring digital imagecontent, is known in the art and will not be discussed further hereinaccept as may be necessary to further discuss the inventive aspects ofthe present invention. To facilitate operation in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention, the processor 122 may beoperatively coupled to a memory 126, an audio input, such as microphone128, and a coordinate resolving device, such as a GPS receiver 124. Itshould be noted that each of these elements also might operate inaccordance with known imaging systems. For example, the memory 126 maybe utilized to store imaging content acquired by the camera 120 andresolved by the processor 122 as is known in the art.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the camera120 may also have a data input 110. The data input 110 is illustrativelyshown coupled to an Internet connection 130 for operatively coupling thecamera 120 to data servers via the World Wide Web (WWW . . . ). The datainput 110 is also shown coupled to a local data source, illustrativelyshown as a computer 140. It should be noted that the scope of thepresent invention is not intended to be limited to the illustrative datasources shown in FIG. 1, since any data source may suffice for operationin accordance with the present invention. For example, the data sourcecould readily be any data source such as an optical storage device, afixed disk storage device, a solid-state storage device, etc.

Further, the data input 110 should be understood to accommodate anymeans for operatively coupling the camera 120 with a data source. Forexample, the data input 110 may include an Ethernet interface forcoupling to a data source through either a wired or wireless Ethernetconnection. Other means of coupling are also known such as a UniversalSerial Bus (USB) coupling, a wireless 802.11 coupling, a BlueToothcoupling, a Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) coupling, etc. Any of these orother coupling systems may be suitably utilized in accordance with thepresent invention. The data input should also be understood to encompasslocal removable storage media, such as Compact Flash media, SecureDigital Multimedia Cards, etc.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the camera120 may also capture and/or determine additional data through the use ofat least one of the data input 110, the memory 126, the mike 128, and/orthe GPS receiver 124. The additional data is stored at some time in thememory 126 in a memory location associated with acquired image data. Theadditional data is above and beyond the raw GPS coordinate data suppliedby the GPS receiver 124. The additional data is intended to provide auser with, for example, enhanced location information that is meaningfulin assisting the user to recall details of where image data is acquired.This additional data is then retrieved by the user together with theimage data at some later time to, for example, act as a recall aid sothat the user may later recall the significance of acquired image data.

Further operation of the present invention will be described herein withregard to the illustrative system 100, shown in FIG. 1, and with regardto FIG. 2 that shows a flow diagram 200 in accordance with an embodimentof the present invention.

As illustrated, during act 205 timeframe and/or reference location data,illustratively related to GPS coordinate data is received by the camera120. The timeframe and/or reference location data may be stored in aportion of the memory 126 for later use by the processor 122. In anembodiment where the data input 110 accommodates a local storage media,the timeframe and/or reference location data may be received from thelocal storage media. In the same or a further embodiment, the camera 120may receive timeframe and/or reference location data from the Internet130, the computer 140, and/or any other external data storage device.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the timeframeand/or reference location data may be utilized by the camera 120 toprovide a user with meaningful information (e.g., criteria) related to aGPS coordinate wherein content, such as an image, was acquired by thecamera 120. For example, the reference location data may correspond to atown and/or city having a significant population density, such as a cityhaving a population density over 100,000 people. It should be noted thatpopulation density equal to or greater than any number may, in someembodiments, not be the criteria utilized to determine what issignificant criteria to a given user. However, a location with a largepopulation density (e.g., >100,000 people) may be more likely to besignificant criteria to a user than a location with a small populationdensity.

Other criteria that may be significant criteria to a user may include,for example, the place of birth of the user or other people known to theuser. Significant criteria may also be a residence of the user or otherpeople known to the user. Other characteristics of a location that mayrender that location as significant criteria to a user would be readilyapparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art and may also becriteria utilized in accordance with the present invention. Accordingly,any of these other criteria should be understood to be within the scopeof the present invention.

In an embodiment wherein the criteria includes personal information of auser, the data input 110 may be a computer mouse input, a keyboardinput, or other known input particularly suited to facilitate the userdirectly inputting the personal information. In accordance with thepresent invention, the processor 122 may have the ability to determinereference location data corresponding to, or in close proximity with GPScoordinate data determined from the GPS receiver 124 or determined fromanother source of coordinate data coupled through the data input 110.The timeframe and/or reference location data may also be utilized toidentify other significant characteristics, such as criteria related toimage acquisition as described further herein below.

During act 210, the camera 120 acquires an image. Additionally, theprocessor 122 may receive time of image acquisition data and GPScoordinate data, from the GPS receiver 124. The GPS coordinate data mayidentify the location of where the image was acquired. During act 220,the processor 122 stores the GPS coordinate data, time of imageacquisition data, and image data, corresponding to the acquired image,in the memory 126. It should be noted that the processor 122 may beutilized as a time keeping device to determine the time of imageacquisition data or a separate time keeping device, such as the GPSreceiver 124, or other not shown, may be contained within the camera 120for determining the time of image acquisition data. The processor 122,utilizing a time keeping device, captures the current time at the timeof image acquisition to determine the time of image acquisition data.

FIG. 3 shows a portion 300 of the memory 126, for storing data relatedto an image that is acquired in accordance with the present invention.As shown, the portion 300 comprises a portion 310 for storing imagedata, a portion 320 for storing the GPS coordinate data, a portion 330for storing the time of image acquisition data, and a portion 340 forstoring additional data. The additional data will be described furtherherein below. In accordance with the present invention, the act 220 maybe repeated one or more times thereafter and any additional dataacquired will be similarly stored in the memory 126 resulting inadditional memory portions 300.

During act 230, the processor 122 queries the one or more memoryportions 300 for the GPS coordinate data and/or the time of imageacquisition data corresponding to the image data acquired during act oracts 220. Utilizing the timeframe and/or reference location data,additional data corresponding to criteria, such as characteristics ofparticular interest, are determined by the processor 122 and are storedin the portion or portions 340 for each of the images acquired.

For example, in one embodiment, the timeframe data may relate to aninterval of time, such as a one-day interval. In accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention, the processor 122 determinesreference location data at a beginning and end of the one-day interval.The reference location data may correspond to where the camera 120 islocated, or located close to (e.g., a location with a high populationdensity), at the beginning and end of the one-day interval. In thisembodiment, after determining where the camera 120 is located at thebeginning and end of one or more one-day intervals, the processor 122queries the one or more memory portions 330 to identify images acquiredduring each of the one or more one-day intervals. When an image isidentified that was acquired during a given one-day interval, thecorresponding locations of the camera 120 at the beginning and end ofthe one-day interval are stored in the portion 340 as the additionaldata for that image. In this way, when the processor 122 is utilized toretrieve the data stored in image portion 300 during act 240, theadditional data stored in the portion 340 is also retrieved.Inventively, this system 100 enables a user to retrieve the additionaldata for each acquired image that oftentimes may be more significantcriteria to the user then merely the location where the image wasacquired.

Oftentimes, images are acquired when the user is traveling throughoutthe course of the day. A given location where an image is acquired maybe no more than some interesting stop along the way. However, sometimethereafter, it may be difficult to determine how each of the acquiredimages relates to a past event or trip. The present invention solvesthis problem by determining additional data for each acquired image. Theadditional data relates to criteria other than just the time andlocation of image acquisition and thereby may provide the user withfurther cues to help remember the significance of each acquired image.

For example, for a user taking a day trip from New York City to NiagaraFalls, the user may stop at a lake along the way that is an appealingspot to acquire an image. The exact location of the spot may have nosignificance to the user. However, the additional data that the spot islocated between New York City and Niagara Falls (e.g., the beginning andend location of the camera 120 during a given one-day interval) may befundamental criteria in aiding the user to recall how the acquired imagerelates to the user. After all, oftentimes it is not just thecomposition of the acquired image that is significant to the user. Anacquired image may only be significant to the user if the user has theability to recall how the acquired image relates to the user. Yet, manytimes a user does not have this ability utilizing prior art imageacquisition systems because the image itself, and even additional datasuch as time of image acquisition and location of image acquisition, isnot significant to the user sometime after image acquisition. In thisembodiment, it should be clear that the data input 110 need not beseparate from the processor 122, the memory 126, and/or the GPS receiver124 since the timeframe and/or reference location data may be derivedfrom each or either of these devices.

Inventively, the present system provides the user with additional datathat assists the user in determining the significance of acquiredimages. The additional data, determined from the received timeframeand/or location coordinate data, is stored with the acquired image dataand is retrieved by the user, when the image data is retrieved.

As another example, image data may be acquired over the course of a oneor more day trip while traveling from the users place of residence to auser's parent's place of residence. Again, the significance of the imagedata may be its relation to the trip itself, as opposed to the locationof where the image data was acquired. In this case, some of theadditional data may be the location at which the trip started and thelocations significance to the user. This data may be determined at thebeginning of the trip via the GPS receiver 124.

Further, the additional data may be determined from other sources suchas the mike 128. In this embodiment, the processor 122 may receive audioinput from the mike 128 and thereafter, may convert the audio input tospeech via speech recognition. The recognized speech may then beutilized to determine reference location data utilized in accordancewith the present invention. For example, the user may activate the mike128 to capture speech from the user stating, “I am on my way to my mom'shouse.” This speech is analyzed by the processor 122 to determinereference location data that indicates the significance of any imagesacquired during the trip to mom's house. Thereafter, the GPS coordinatedata of images that are acquired is analyzed to determine if the imagesare acquired along this route (e.g., on the way to mom's house). Whenthe images are acquired along this route, the additional data storedalong with the images is data identifying that the images were acquiredon the way to mom's house.

The images may be acquired before or after the reference location datais provided to the camera 120. For example, when the reference locationdata is a beginning and ending location, the images may be acquiredprior to the processor 122 determining the ending location. Theprocessor 122 may store the beginning location with the acquired imagesand may at some time later, store the ending location with the sameacquired images. Additional criteria for identifying significantlocations (e.g., locations with a high population density or touristattractions) may not be determined till some time later after the camera120 is connected to a data source via the data input 110. In any event,whenever the camera 120 acquires other related data, such as referencelocation data, the processor 122 may store this related data asadditional data with the associated acquired images.

The processor 122 may also utilize logic for identifying otheradditional data. For example, the processor 122 may utilize the speechdata “I am on my way to my mom's house” to determine additional data forimages acquired around mom's house, in a given time frame (e.g., aroundthe time frame of the trip). The additional data may be “the imageswhere acquired during the trip to mom's house from this date (e.g., astart date) to that date (e.g., an end date).”

In another embodiment, the processor 122 may determine a location of thecamera at the end of a day, and thereafter determine if the location ata following day is the same, thereby indicating a stop over location.The indication of a location that is a stop over location may also bethereafter stored as additional data in the memory portion 340 forimages that are acquired in a time or location proximity to the stopover location.

In yet another embodiment, a device in accordance with the presentinvention may operate to generate a trip description. During the trip,the time of image acquisition and the location of image acquisition isstored. During or after the trip, the location of image acquisition maybe translated to a more understandable description like road numbers,towns, etc., and saved as the additional data. In this way, the acquiredimages taken along a given route may be stored, with the given routesaved as the additional data.

It should be understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art thatthe sequence of acts shown in FIG. 2 is not intended as a limitation tothe appended claims. Specifically, any other sequence of the illustratedacts may be constructed that still would operate in accordance with thepresent invention. For example, in one embodiment, all the image dataincluding time of image acquisition and/or location of image acquisitionmay be acquired prior to the camera 120 receiving any timeframe dataand/or reference location data. Further, even the timeframe data may bereceived at a later time or from a separate source than the referencelocation data.

Finally, the above-discussion is intended to be merely illustrative ofthe present invention and should not be construed as limiting theappended claims to any particular embodiment or group of embodiments.For example, other criteria would readily occur to a person of ordinaryskill in the art and should be construed to be within the scope of thepresent invention. Further, multiple criteria may be stored for one ormore of the acquired images as the additional data for the acquiredimages. The processor may be a dedicated processor for performing inaccordance with the present invention or may be a general-purposeprocessor wherein only one of many functions operates for performing inaccordance with the present invention. The processor may operateutilizing a program portion, multiple program segments, or may be ahardware device utilizing a dedicated or multi-purpose integratedcircuit. The memory 126 may be comprised of one or more solid-statememories, one or more optical memories, or any other combinations ofknown memory devices. The camera 120 may capture one or more images atthe time of image acquisition. Accordingly, the camera may be a motionpicture camera, such as a camcorder. Additionally, other self-generatedcontent may also be provided with the additional data in accordance withthe present invention. Other self-generated content may also includeaudio content (e.g., sound recordings). Accordingly, the term camera, asutilized herein, should be understood to encompass other devices foracquiring self-generated content. The devices embodied in FIG. 1 mayactually be one or more separate devices. For example, the processor 122GPS receiver 124, data input 110, memory 126, etc. may be embodied in asingle device. In this or another embodiment, timeframe data and/orreference location data and the time of image acquisition and/orlocation of image acquisition may be acquired from a single devicehaving a timing portion and/or a positioning portion.

Further, the term GPS receiver, such as GPS receiver 124, is intended toincorporate other devices and systems known that can determine a currentposition. For example, other devices may include a cellular transmitterwithin a cellular telephone network. The network may determine theposition of the cellular transmitter and thereafter, transmit thislocation data to the camera 120. Accordingly, the location data may notneed be determined by the camera 120, but may be determined external tothe camera. In fact, the location data may be determined external to thecamera and may be maintained external to the camera. In this embodiment,or other embodiments, such as those discussed above, the additional datamay be determined external to the camera 120. The additional data may betransmitted to the camera 120 for storage in a memory, such as memory126, or an external memory. In an embodiment wherein an external memoryis utilized, the image data may thereafter be stored in the externalmemory together with the additional data.

Numerous alternate embodiments may be devised by those having ordinaryskill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of theappended claims.

In interpreting the appended claims, it should be understood that:

a) the word “comprising” does not exclude the presence of other elementsor acts than those listed in a given claim;

b) the word “a” or “an” preceding an element does not exclude thepresence of a plurality of such elements;

c) any reference signs in the claims do not limit their scope;

d) several “means” may be represented by the same item or hardware orsoftware implemented structure or function;

e) each of the disclosed elements may be comprised of hardware portions(e.g., discrete electronic circuitry), software portions (e.g., computerprogramming), or any combination thereof;

f) any of the disclosed devices or portions thereof may be combinedtogether or separated into further portions unless specifically statedotherwise; and

g) no specific sequence of acts is intended to be required unlessspecifically indicated.

1. A content acquiring device comprising: a content input configured foracquiring content and at least one of a time of acquiring the contentand a location of acquiring the content; and a processor operativelycoupled to the content input and the data input, wherein the processoris configured to determine additional data from a relation between atleast one of the time of acquiring the content and the location ofacquiring the content, and at least one of timeframe data and referencelocation data.
 2. The content acquiring device of claim 1, wherein thecontent acquiring device is an imaging camera.
 3. The content acquiringdevice of claim 1, comprising a global positioning system receiver (GPS)wherein the GPS is configured to provide the processor with the locationof acquiring the content.
 4. The content acquiring device of claim 1,wherein the content acquiring device is configured to receive both thetimeframe data and the reference location data and wherein the timeframedata is a start and an end of a time interval and the reference locationdata is a location of the content acquiring device at the start and theend of the time interval.
 5. The content acquiring device of claim 1,wherein the content acquiring device comprises a memory, wherein thememory is configured to store the acquired content and the determinedadditional data.
 6. The content acquiring device of claim 1, comprisingan audio input configured to receive at least one of the timeframe dataand the reference location data.
 7. The content acquiring device ofclaim 6, wherein the processor is configured to receive audio data fromthe audio input and to convert the audio input to at least one of thetimeframe data and the reference location data.
 8. The content acquiringdevice of claim 1, wherein at least one of the timeframe data and thereference location data is received from a network connection.
 9. Thecontent acquiring device of claim 8, wherein the network connection isconfigured to receive the least one of the timeframe data and referencelocation data from an external content storage device.
 10. A method ofacquiring self-generated content, the method comprising the acts of:acquiring content; acquiring at least one of a time of acquiring thecontent and a location of acquiring the content; receiving at least oneof timeframe data and reference location data; and determiningadditional data from a relation between at least one of the time ofacquiring the content and the location of acquiring the content, and atleast one of the timeframe data and the reference location data.
 11. Themethod of claim 10, wherein the acquired content is imaging content. 12.The method of claim 10, wherein both the timeframe data and thereference location data is acquired.
 13. The method of claim 12, whereinthe timeframe data is a start and an end of a time interval.
 14. Themethod of claim 12, wherein the reference location data is a location ofthe content acquiring device at the start and the end of the timeinterval.
 15. The method of claim 10, further comprising the acts of:receiving audio input; and converting the audio input to at least one ofthe timeframe data and the reference location data.
 16. A contentacquiring device comprising: a content input configured for acquiringcontent and at least one of a time of acquiring the content and alocation of acquiring the content; a data input configured to receive atleast one of timeframe data and reference location data; and a processoroperatively coupled to the content input and the data input, wherein theprocessor is configured to determine additional data from a relationbetween at least one of the time of acquiring the content and thelocation of acquiring the content, and at least one of the timeframedata and the reference location data.
 17. The content acquiring deviceof claim 16, wherein the content acquiring device is configured toreceive both the timeframe data and the reference location data andwherein the timeframe data is a start and an end of a time interval andthe reference location data is a location of the content acquiringdevice at the start and the end of the time interval.
 18. The contentacquiring device of claim 16, comprising a position determining systemwherein the position determining system is configured to provide theprocessor with the location of acquiring the content.
 19. The contentacquiring device of claim 18, wherein the GPS is configured to providethe processor with the reference location data.